The founder of the French lyrical tragedy genre. History of French Opera

A native of Italy, who was destined to glorify French music - such was the fate of Jean-Baptiste Lully. The founder of French lyrical tragedy, he played a key role in the formation of the Royal Academy of Music - the future Grand Opera House.

Giovanni Battista Lulli (this is what the future composer was called at birth) is a native of Florence. His father was a miller, but his origins did not prevent the boy from becoming interested in art. In his childhood, he showed versatile abilities - he danced and acted out comic skits. A certain Franciscan monk instructed him in musical art, and Giovanni Batista learned to play the guitar and violin perfectly. Luck smiled at him at the age of fourteen: the Duke of Guise drew attention to the talented young musician and took him into his retinue. In France, the musician, now called French manner- Jean-Baptiste Lully - became the page of the Princesse de Montpensier, the king's sister. His job was to help her practice Italian, and also entertain by playing musical instruments. At the same time, Lully filled the gaps in music education– took singing and composition lessons, mastered the harpsichord, and improved in playing the violin.

The next stage of his career was work in the “Twenty-Four Violins of the King” orchestra. But Lully conquered his contemporaries not only by playing the violin, he also danced beautifully - so much so that in 1653 the young king wanted Lully to perform with him in the ballet “Night”, staged at court. The acquaintance with the monarch, which took place under such circumstances, allowed him to enlist the support of the king.

Lully was appointed to the position of court composer of instrumental music. His responsibility in this capacity was to create music for ballets that were staged at court. As we have already seen with the example of “Night”, the king himself performed in these productions, and the courtiers did not lag behind His Majesty. Lully himself also danced in performances. The ballets of that era were different from modern ones - along with dancing, they included singing. Initially, Lully was involved only in the instrumental part, but over time he became responsible for the vocal component. He created many ballets - “The Seasons”, “Flora”, “Fine Arts”, “Country Wedding” and others.

At the time when Lully created his ballets, the career of Jean-Baptiste Moliere was developing very successfully. Having made his debut in the French capital in 1658, after five years the playwright was awarded a substantial pension from the king; moreover, the monarch ordered him a play in which he himself could perform as a dancer. This is how the ballet comedy “Reluctant Marriage” was born, ridiculing scholarship and philosophy (an elderly main character intends to marry a young girl, but, doubting his decision, turns to educated people for advice - however, none of them can give an intelligible answer to his question). The music was written by Lully, and Pierre Beauchamp worked on the production along with Moliere and Lully himself. Beginning with “A Reluctant Marriage,” the collaboration with Moliere turned out to be very fruitful: “Georges Dandin,” “The Princess of Elis” and other comedies were created. The most famous joint creation of the playwright and composer was the comedy “The Bourgeois in the Nobility.”

Being Italian by birth, Lully was skeptical about the idea of ​​​​creating a French opera - in his opinion, the French language was not suitable for this native Italian genre. But when the first French opera, Robert Cambert's Pomona, was staged, the king himself approved it, which forced Lully to pay attention to this genre. True, the works that he created were called not operas, but lyrical tragedies, and the first in their series was the tragedy “Cadmus and Hermione,” written on a libretto by Philip Kino. Subsequently, Theseus, Atys, Bellerophon, Phaethon and others were written. Lully's lyrical tragedies consisted of five acts, each of which opened with an extended aria of one of the main characters, and in the further development of the action, recitative scenes alternated with short arias. Lully attached great importance to recitatives, and when creating them, he was guided by the style of declamation inherent in the tragic actors of that time (in particular, the famous actress Marie Chammele). Each act ended with a divertimento and a choral scene. French lyrical tragedy, at the origins of which Lully stood, differed from Italian opera - dancing played no less important role in it than singing. The overtures also differed from the Italian models; they were built according to the “slow-fast-slow” principle. The singers in these performances performed without masks, and another innovation was the introduction of oboes and trumpets into the orchestra.

Lully's creativity is not limited to operas and ballets - he created trios, instrumental arias and other works, including spiritual ones. One of them – Te Deum – played a fatal role in the composer’s fate: while directing its performance, Lully accidentally injured his leg with a trampoline (a cane used to beat rhythm at that time), and the wound caused a fatal illness. The composer died in 1687 before he could complete his the latest tragedy– “Achilles and Polyxena” (finished by Pascal Collas, a student of Lully).

Lully's operas enjoyed success until the mid-18th century. Later they disappeared from the scene, but interest in them was revived in the 21st century.

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The phrase “tragédie lyrique” itself would be more correctly translated into Russian as “musical tragedy”, which better conveys the meaning that the French of the 17th-18th centuries put into it. But since the term “lyrical tragedy” has become established in Russian musicological literature, it is also used in this work.

The production of “Cadmus and Hermione” by Lully in 1673 definitely announced the birth of a second national opera school - the French one, which spun off from the hitherto only Italian one. It was the first example of lyrical tragedy, a genre that became fundamental to French opera. Before this, there had been occasional productions of six or seven Italian operas at the French court, but even such a talented author as Cavalli did not really convince the French public. To please her tastes, Cavalli's scores were supplemented with ballet music composed by Jean Baptiste Lully, a Florentine commoner who had a meteoric career at the court of Louis XIV. Despite his skepticism towards the attempts of Cambert and Perrin to create a French opera, a decade later Lully himself began to implement this idea, in which he was very successful.

He created his operas in collaboration with Philippe Kino, whose tragedies enjoyed success with the Parisian public for some time. Their joint works came under the special patronage of Louis XIV, largely thanks to the solemn allegorical prologue glorifying the monarch (this was absent in the classicist tragedy). Of course, this could not help but impress the “Sun King”. Gradually, the lyrical tragedy of Lully-Kino ousted Rassin’s tragedy from the royal stage, and Lully himself, skillfully catering to the whims of the monarch, received from him almost absolute power within the “Royal Academy of Music”, to which his literary co-author was also subordinate.

The "clever Florentine" caught on main reason failure of Italian operas. No amount of musical merit could reconcile the French public, brought up on classicist tragedy, with their “incomprehensibility” - not only a foreign language, but, most importantly, with the baroque complexity of the plot and the absence of a “reasonable” beginning in the spirit of classicism. Realizing this, Lully decided to make his opera a drama based on the chanted theatrical declamation of Rassin’s theater, with its “exaggeratedly broad lines in both voice and gestures.” It is known that Lully diligently studied the manner of recitation of outstanding actors of his time, and, having drawn important intonation features from this source, he reformatively updated the structure of Italian recitative. He aptly combined the conventional elation of style with rational restraint of expression, thus pleasing “both the court and the city.” Two main types of solo vocal numbers were flexibly combined with this recitative: small melodious and declamatory airs, as generalizations during the recitative scenes, and graceful airs of a song and dance type, which were in close contact with modern everyday genres, which contributed to their wide popularity.

But in contrast to the staged asceticism of the classicist drama, Lully gave his lyrical tragedy the appearance of a spectacular, magnificent spectacle, replete with dances, processions, choirs, luxurious costumes and scenery, and “wonderful” machinery. It was these baroque effects in Italian operas that aroused the admiration of the French audience, which Lully took well into account. Also a very important spectacular component of lyrical tragedy was ballet, which was very well developed at the court of Louis XIV.

If in Italian opera the tendency to concentrate musical expression in solo arias and weaken the role of choral, instrumental and ballet numbers gradually triumphed, then in French opera the emphasis was placed on the verbal expression of dramatic action. Contrary to its name, the lyrical tragedy XVII did not give the actual musical expression of the images. All the more understandable is the furor created by the production of Hippolytus and Arisia, in which, according to Andre Campra, “there is enough music for ten operas.”

In any case, the combination of the classicist harmonious order of the whole, lush baroque effects, Kino’s heroic and gallant libretti and new musical solutions greatly impressed Lully’s contemporaries, and his opera formed a long and powerful tradition.

However, almost half a century passed between the premieres of the last lyrical tragedy and the true masterpiece of Lully-Cinema “Armide” and “Hippolyte and Arisia” by Rameau. After Lully's death, no worthy successor was found for him, and the genre of lyrical tragedy suffered an unenviable fate. The strict discipline established by the composer at the Opera soon became greatly weakened, and, as a result, the overall level of performance decreased significantly. Although many composers tried their hand at this genre, since it was the one that paid the highest fees, only a few productions had lasting success. Feeling their inadequacy in lyrical tragedy, the best creative forces turned to opera-ballet, a new genre with lighter drama and a preponderance of the gallant-love component over everything else.

From this we can conclude that, given the general decline of lyrical tragedy, Rameau was not afraid to make his debut in this genre in the fall of 1733 and went “against the tide,” nevertheless winning a remarkable victory.

The authors of the essay are M. I. Teroganyan, O. T. Leontyeva

If you were faced with posters for the weekly or ten-day repertoire of all the opera houses in the country, in almost every one of them you would find the names of one, two, and possibly three operas written by French composers. In any case, it is difficult to imagine an opera troupe that would not stage Carmen by Georges Bizet or Faust by Charles Gounod. Undoubtedly, these works are included in the golden fund of world opera classics, and time has no power to make their wonderful musical colors fade. Generations of people replace each other, but the popularity of these masterpieces by Bizet and Gounod does not weaken at all.

But, of course, the significance of French opera in the historical process of development of this genre is far from being exhausted by the mentioned works of Gounod and Bizet. Starting with Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), French culture can rightfully be proud of its many, many composers who left a valuable legacy in the field of musical theater. The best examples of this heritage had a significant influence on the development of other national opera schools.

In April 1659, the play “Pastorale Issy” was staged in Paris. The authors of its music and text are French: Robert Cambert and Pierre Perin. The score of the play has not survived, but a poster has survived, indicating that “Pastoral” was listed as “the first French comedy set to music and presented in France.” A short time later, in 1671, the “Royal Academy of Music” opened with the five-act pastoral “Pomona” by the same authors - Camber and Peren. Louis XIV issues Peren a patent, according to which the latter is in full charge of production at the Academy of Operas. But soon the reins of the Royal Academy of Music passed to Jean Baptiste Lully, a man of great intelligence, inexhaustible energy and comprehensive musical talent. It was his lot that fell to an important historical mission - to become the founder of the French national opera.

Lully's legacy is represented by such musical and theatrical works as Armida, Roland, Bellerophon, Theseus, and Isis. In them, the French operatic art is affirmed as lyrical tragedy (the word “lyrical” in those days meant musical, sung tragedy). The plots of the latter are based on events ancient history or Greek mythology.

Lully's opera scores contain many heroic and lyrical moments, genre scenes and episodes. The composer has a great sense of the nature of the voice; his solo vocal parts, ensembles, and choirs sound great. It is Lully who owes subsequent generations of French musicians the fact that in their operas the recitative scenes convey melodiousness well French. Lully is an outstanding master of orchestral writing. His colorful means are diverse, his sound palette is extensive - especially in those cases when the composer turns to depicting pictures of nature.

The next largest figure in the genre of opera after Lully was Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). His “Hippolyte”, “Gallant India”, “Castor and Pollux”, “The Triumph of Hebe”, “Dardanus” and other works continue and develop the traditions of Lully , Marked exquisite taste, they are invariably melodic and brightly theatrical. Ramo pays significant attention to dance scenes. Let us note in passing that no matter how the stylistic features of the French support may change in the future, the element of dance will always play a noticeable role in it.

The opera performances of Rameau, like his predecessor Lully, undoubtedly belonged to significant phenomena in the cultural life of Paris during the time of Louis XV. However, the era, characterized by rapid socio-political development of all layers of the French nation, was not satisfied with traditional artistic ideas and forms. The growing tastes and demands of the Parisian bourgeoisie no longer corresponded to the musical style of the operas of Lully and Rameau with their tragic plots drawn from ancient Greek and biblical myths. The surrounding reality powerfully suggested new images, themes, and plots to music figures. She suggested a new opera genre. Thus, in the middle of the 18th century, the national comic opera was born in France.

Its origins are the cheerful Parisian booths and fair performances. Sharply satirical in their focus, they ridiculed the morals of the ruling classes - the aristocracy, the clergy. Parodies of drama and opera were also created. The authors of this kind of performances willingly used melodies that existed among the people.

The emergence of French comic opera was also influenced by “The Maid and Madam” by G. Pergolesi, which Parisians met in 1752 during a tour of the Italian troupe. Since then, French comic opera has adopted the peculiarity of Italian opera: musical action is interspersed with conversational scenes - interludes.

In the same 1752, when “The Maid and Mistress” was shown in Paris, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote his “The Village Sorcerer”. Not only purely external forms of the comedy genre are used here. “The Village Sorcerer” claims a fundamentally new type musical performance: legendary figures and mythological heroes are replaced in French opera stage simple people with their everyday interests, joys and sorrows.

Along with J. J. Rousseau, French comic opera owes much to the talent of such composers as E. R. Douny (1709-1775), P. A. Monsigny (1729-1817), F. A. Philidor (1726-1795) and A. E. M. Gretry (1741-1813). In collaboration with P. Lesage, C. Favard, J. F. Marmontel and other librettists, they create excellent examples of national musical comedy. In its evolution, it naturally undergoes significant changes - primarily in terms of the plot. Along with cheerful and exciting intrigue, sensitive, sentimental moods, and sometimes great dramatic feelings, find a place in the libretto of new comic operas. These features are noted, in particular, in “The Deserter” by Monsigny, “Nina, or Crazy in Love” by N. Dalleyrak, and especially by Grétry’s best creation, “Richard the Lionheart”. In these works, the musical features of the romantic opera of the subsequent, 19th century mature.

While the genre of comic opera is developing significantly compared to the first experiments in this field, the spirit of strict classical operas, the themes and style of which are close to the creative school of Gluck, prevails at the Royal Academy of Music. Such are “Tarar” by Antonio Salieri, “Oedipus at Colon” ​​by Antonio Sacchini, “Demophon” by Luigi Cherubini.

In our story about the history of French opera, it is no coincidence that the name German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. Shortly before the victory of the French bourgeois revolution of 1789, Paris followed with deep interest the activities of Gluck, who chose the capital of France as the artistic arena where his famous operatic reform was carried out. Gluck was based on a French lyrical tragedy. He, however, abandoned purely decorative luxury, which focused on external effect and was characteristic of the royal ideas of the Lully-Ramo era. All the composer’s aspirations, all his means of expression were subordinated to one goal: to turn opera into a meaningful, naturally and logically developing musical drama. All opera schools, including the French opera house, took advantage of Gluck's high artistic achievements to one degree or another.

The storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789) marks the beginning of the revolutionary upheaval in France. All aspects of the country's socio-political life are changing dramatically. However, it is curious that this short era, but full of turbulent events, is not marked by such operatic works that would capture the greatness of events in artistically significant images. The vibrant movement of public life directed the creative efforts of French composers and those who found a second home in France (for example, Luigi Cherubini) in a different direction. A huge number of marches, revolutionary songs are created (among them such masterpieces as “All Forward” and “Carmagnola” by nameless authors, “La Marseillaise” by Rouget de Lisle), choral and orchestral works intended for the audience of streets and squares, for parades and processions, for grandiose national celebrations. At the same time, the opera house does not rise above Grétry’s musical and dramatic performances such as “Offering to Freedom”, “Triumph of the Republic” or “The Republican Chosen”. These works were staged on the stage of the Royal Academy of Music, which by that time had been renamed the National Opera Theatre. In the days when the monarchy collapsed and King Louis XVI was executed, they marked the destruction of the strict style of classicism, dating back to the time of Lully.

The most significant phenomenon of the period described was the genre of “horror and salvation” opera. The social motive in these operas was not significant: a purely love theme with an admixture of naive morality prevailed. The entertaining plot was filled with all sorts of adventures. No matter what troubles befell the hero or heroine - they sometimes came from lower classes - a happy ending always awaited them “at the end.” The innocent victim and good triumphed, the villain and vice were punished.

The spirit of melodrama reigned in the operas of “horror and salvation”; there were many spectacular spectacular moments. Their dramaturgy was built by composers on the contrasting comparison of various stage situations. Highlighted and highlighted musical means characters of the main characters. The setting of the action was conveyed as accurately as possible. The romantic spirit intensified, the score was significantly enriched due to the wider use of genres of everyday music - verse songs, romances, marches, melodically close and accessible to the widest range of listeners. The style of “horror and salvation” opera had a positive influence on the subsequent development of not only French, but also world opera art. Burton's "The Horrors of the Monastery" (1790), Grétry's "William Tell" (1791) and Cherubini's "The Lodoiska" (1791) are the first works of this genre. From the series of operas that followed, we highlight “The Cave” by J. F. Lesueur (1793) and “The Water Carrier” (or “Two Days”) by Cherubini (1800).

The years of the consulate and empire of Napoleon Bonaparte (1799-1814) left a noticeable imprint on French musical culture. The Imperial Academy of Music (as the National Opera Theater is now called) stages operas whose content is based primarily on legends, myths or ancient historical events. The tone on stage is high, one performance outshines the other with its pomp and circumstance. Other works are written with the explicit purpose of glorifying the all-powerful Napoleon.

Composers of both the older generation and young ones who are just entering their independent career work for the Imperial Academy of Music. creative path. The best operas of this period are “Semiramide” by S. S. Catel, “Bards” by J. F. Lesueur, and especially “The Vestal” by the Italian G. L. Spontini, the bright theatricality and entertainment of which anticipates the operatic work of D. Meyerbeer.

Performances of the comic opera are staged in two theaters - Feydeau and Favard. E. N. Megul and N. Dalleyrak, N. Ivoir and F. A. Boualdier are successfully creating here. A curious phenomenon should be considered “Joseph in Egypt” by Megul (1807), where there were no love affairs or female characters. With a strict musical style inspired by the biblical legend, the opera contains many lyrically heartfelt pages. Also interesting is the light and graceful “Cinderella” by Izouard (1810). Both operas are different in the combination of their musical and expressive means. Both indicate that the genre of comic opera turned out to be flexible and creatively promising for the development of musical and theatrical art.

The successes of French comic opera of the 19th century. are largely associated with the name of Boieldieu, who created his most significant work during the Bourbon restoration (1814-1830) - “The White Lady” (1825) (the libretto of the opera was written by the famous playwright Eugene Scribe, a constant collaborator of Meyerbeer, Offenbach and a number of other outstanding composers .). The music of the opera is due to Boieldieu's deep understanding of the romantic spirit of the literary source, the author of which was Walter Scott. The author of The White Lady is an excellent opera playwright. Elements of fantasy successfully complement the realistically developing action; The orchestra, soloists and choirs sound excellent. The role of Boieldieu's works is quite large: direct threads go from him to the genre of lyric opera, which established itself on the French stage in the second half of the 19th century.

However highest altitudes Daniel François Esprit Aubert (1782-1871) managed to achieve in the field of comic opera. The composer penned such an outstanding example of the genre as “Fra Diavolo” (1830). Ober perfectly understands and feels the nature of comic opera. The music of “Fra Diavolo” is light and elegant, melodic and intelligible, filled with gentle humor and lyricism.

Another glorious page in the history of the French opera theater is associated with the name of Aubert. In 1828, the premiere of his “The Mute of Portici” (or “Fenella”) took place on the stage of the Grand Opera Theatre. story line which was based on events related to the Neapolitan uprising of 1647. Created by the composer just before the revolution of 1830, on the eve of the fall of the Bourbon dynasty, the opera appealed to the excited public mood of those years. Being a work of historical-heroic nature, it prepared, “together” with Rossini’s “William Tell,” the ground for the flowering of the outstanding talent of Giacomo Meyerbeer.

Paris first became acquainted with Meyerbeer's operatic work in 1825, when his Crusader in Egypt was staged at the Grand Opera. Although the work had a certain success with the public, the composer, perfectly aware of the situation artistic life Paris, the then musical “capital” of the world, understood that a different operatic style was needed, one that would correspond to the ideology of the new bourgeois society. The result of Meyerbeer’s thoughts and creative searches was the opera “Robert the Devil” (1831), which made the name of its author a European celebrity. Next, the composer writes “The Huguenots” (1836), then “The Prophet” (1849). It is these works by Meyerbeer that establish the style of the so-called “grand” opera.

Different in plot and ideological orientation, Meyerbeer's operas are united by many general features. First of all, by connection with an established European art- literature, painting - the direction of romanticism. Subtly sensing the laws of the theatrical stage, the composer achieves breathtaking entertainment in each case. The action of his operas always develops rapidly, it is full of exciting events; the feelings of the heroes are emphasized, their characters are noble and sublime. The composer's creative thought is inspired only by people with interesting, sometimes tragic fate(Robert - in “Robert the Devil”, Raoul and Valentina - in “The Huguenots”, John of Leiden - in “The Prophet”).

Meyerbeer's operatic dramaturgy is based on the technique of contrast - both between acts and within them. Based on an excellent knowledge of the Italian opera school, the composer's vocal style is marked by a widely chanted and clearly expressed melodic beginning. A developed orchestral part is an equal component of Meyerbeer's musical dramaturgy. It is with the help of orchestral sound that the composer sometimes achieves very strong dramatic effects (as an example, let us cite the famous scene of the “Conspiracy and Consecration of Swords” in the fourth act of “The Huguenots”). For more than a quarter of a century, Meyerbeer’s style of “grand” opera was leading in France, influencing both domestic composers and masters of other national schools (in particular, Tchaikovsky’s “The Maid of Orleans” clearly bears traces of the influence of the operatic dramaturgy of Meyerbeer - Scribe).

One of the brightest pages in history musical culture France belongs to that significant period associated with lyric opera. Its first classic example is “Faust” by Charles Gounod, which premiered in 1859, that is, in mid-19th century century. Over the next decades, the genre of lyric opera dominates French musical theater, ultimately proving to be the most viable from the point of view of the artistic interests of today. There is a long list of composers who worked in this genre. Even longer, of course, is the list of works that followed Faust. “Romeo and Juliet” (1867) by C. Gounod; “The Pearl Fishers” (1863), “Djamile” (1871) and “Carmen” (1875) by J. Bizet; “Beatrice and Benedict” by G. Berlioz (1862); "Mignon" by A. Thomas (1806); “Samson and Delilah” by C. Saint-Saens (1877); “The Tales of Hoffmann” by J. Offenbach (1880); “Lakmé” by L. Delibes (1883); “Manon” (1884) and “Werther” (1886, premiered in 1892) by J. Massenet are the best, most popular examples of French lyric opera.

Even the most cursory acquaintance with the stage heritage of the named composers convinces us that in no case does a creative individuality replicate another. This was due not only to the difference in talents; rather, it is the difference in the ideological and aesthetic views of artists that were not formed at the same time. So, for example, the opera “Werther” was written almost thirteen years later than “Faust”, in a different socio-historical period: 1859 refers to the era of the Second Empire (Napoleon III), 1886, when “Werther” was created, - to the establishment of a bourgeois republic in the country. And yet, “Werther,” like “Faust,” belongs to the genre of lyrical opera.

The genre turned out to be very “capacious” in its own way. It is represented by the same “Faust”, which in its external forms approaches the style of “grand” opera, and the two-act, “chamber” opera “Beatrice and Benedict” by Berlioz; the most poetic "The Tales of Hoffmann" by Offenbach, which was the only opera opus of the great legislator of French operetta, and a brilliant example of stage realism - "Carmen" by Bizet. If we add to the above that lyric opera is characterized by the frequent appeal of its authors to the classics of the world fiction(Goethe, Shakespeare), to oriental themes (“Pearl Fishers”, “Jamile”, “Lakme”), to biblical subjects (“Samson and Delilah”), then in general the phenomenon described will present a motley, contradictory picture.

Let us note, however, the following pattern. French lyric opera, as a rule, moves away from large historical and heroic themes, limiting itself primarily to the sphere of a person’s intimate life. The hypertrophied structures of the “grand” opera, developed choral scenes and ensembles are being replaced by romance, cavatina, ballad, arioso, that is, purely chamber stage forms. When the libretto is based on the greatest creations of world literature - for example, “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare, “Faust”, “Werther” and “Wilhelm Meister” by Goethe - the opera loses its deep philosophical idea, highlighting the love drama .

But these “disadvantages” of the new musical and theatrical genre of French art were compensated by many of its “advantages”. Focusing their attention on the spiritual world of man, the authors of lyrical operas created works marked by genuine sincerity and warmth of feeling. Many of them, in particular Massenet, portrait characteristics the heroes received the finest psychological completeness.

In the scores of Gounod and Bizet, Offenbach and Delibes, Thom and Massenet, there are frequent cases of using examples of urban everyday folklore, which made the works of these composers close and understandable to the mass listener.

Special mention should be made about Bizet’s “Carmen”. The rarest truthfulness in the conveyance of complex human feelings and relationships, the power of emotional impact on the audience, the amazing beauty and at the same time amazing clarity of the score, reflecting both wild joy and the tragedy of doom, place Bizet’s opera among the unique works of all world musical literature.

French opera cannot be imagined without “Pelléas et Mélisande” by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and “The Spanish Hour” by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937).

Debussy is the founder of impressionism in music. His only opera, created at the very beginning of the 20th century. based on the drama of the same name by the symbolist M. Meterliik, fully reflects the aesthetics of this unique movement in art. The opera contains many magnificent discoveries both in the field of harmonic and orchestral colors, and in the field of recitative and declamatory writing. However, hopeless pessimism reigns in it.

Ravel's "The Spanish Hour" is a lyric-comedy opera. Its author's main focus is on the orchestra. With its help, the musical life of the watch workshop, where the action of the opera takes place, is drawn, amazing in its wit and precision of reproduction. As in Ravel’s ballets, these unique “choreographic symphonies,” in “The Spanish Hour” everything is based on entertaining intrigue and an orchestral palette that enchants with its colors. The most important component of musical operatic dramaturgy - widely developed vocal forms - are deliberately relegated to the background by the composer, giving way to the recitative-declamatory style of vocal writing.

This is the brief history of French opera from the mid-17th to the beginning of the 20th century.

After Debussy and Ravel, French musical theater has a relatively small number of new works that have left a noticeable mark on the art of our days. The Paris Grand Opera turned to modern music in a long series of ballets, plot and divertissement, which continued the famous French ballet tradition. In the field of opera there is no such abundance of rehearsal works, although modern French opera was created through the efforts of such significant composers as A. Honegger, F. Poulenc, D. Milhaud, A. Coge and others.

The first modern French composer working in the operatic genre should be named Darius Milhaud (1892-1974). The picture of his operatic creativity is rich and colorful. He wrote 15 operas and five major stage works in other genres. One of Milhaud's first theatrical experiences was the music for Aeschylus's Oresteia, translated by P. Claudel. But only the first part of the trilogy, “The Eumenides,” turned out to be a real opera. “Agamemnon” and “Choephori” have the character of original oratorios with a rhythmic part of a speaking choir in combination with variously differentiated percussion instruments (this technique was later skillfully developed by K. Orff).

Milhaud's second experience in the genre of opera-oratorio was “Christopher Columbus” (1930). This is a grandiose composition of twenty-seven scenes in two acts. Throughout the entire action, the reader reads the “book of history,” and the choirs located in the auditorium comment on it. Columbus is also in the chorus, as a witness to his own life. An indispensable condition for the production is a movie screen, where real exotic landscapes and real sea storms are shown, which are narrated by the narrator.

The American theme continued to excite Milhaud even after Columbus. In 1932, a performance of his new opera “Maximilian” based on Franz Worfel’s drama “Juarez and Maximilian” took place in Paris, and in 1943 Milhaud wrote the opera “Bolivar” (based on the drama by J. Superviel). Both works, related in theme and material (the struggle of Latin American peoples against colonization and their internal revolutionary struggle), in some ways resemble the operas of Meyerbeer - Scribe, namely in their “popular interpretation of the historical plot... in the style of lithographs for the people.”

On the eve of the Second World War, Milhaud's opera "Esther of Carpentras" was staged at the Opéra-Comique of Paris, and "Medea" was staged at the Grand Opera two weeks before the occupation.

The only major work for musical theater in Milhaud's post-war work is the opera David (1925-1954), staged in Jerusalem, translated into Hebrew, on the occasion of the 3000th anniversary of the city of Jerusalem. This is a mystery opera in five acts based on the famous biblical story(libretto by Armand Lunel). Epicly harsh choruses here alternate with dramatic scenes (David's victory over Absalom) and lyrical episodes (David's lament over the dead Saul and Jonathan).

A major contribution to the opera culture of France in the 20th century. made by the Swiss Arthur Honegger (1892-1955). In his work, stage works of mixed operatic oratorio forms are of great importance: “monumental frescoes” “King David” “Joan of Arc at the stake”, “Dance of the Dead”.

“King David” (1921) - an opera-oratorio for choir, orchestra and reader on a biblical plot (the same as in the above-mentioned Milhaud opera). Honegger interprets the biblical legend in the tradition of Bach's Gospel "Passion" and Handel's oratorio with their predominantly biblical subjects.

“Judith” (1925), a biblical drama with a text by R. Morax, continues and develops the operatic oratorio form of “King David”, but is closer to the opera (there is no reader and speech dialogues; the second edition of the work has the subtitle “Opera seria”).

Honegger's third stage work is the opera Antigone based on a text by Jean Cocteau (1927), which premiered at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1943. Like Antigone by J. Anouilh, the opera became an anti-fascist manifestation of the Popular Front during the occupation. Honegger and Cocteau followed the path of modernizing the plot, form, and ideological concept of the ancient tragedy, in contrast to the tendencies of stylization that found expression in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (also a text by Cocteau, 1927) and Antigone by C. Orff (1949).

Honegger’s next dramatic oratorio, “Joan of Arc at the stake,” which is central in its significance, was created in collaboration with the largest modern French playwright P. Claudel (1938). The authors called this work a mystery, referring to the religious and secular performances that were played out at squares of French cities in the Middle Ages.

The composition of “Joan of Arc at the stake” is very original. the main role performed by a dramatic actress. The heroine does not really participate in the choral folk scenes: these are her memories, impressions of the recent past. Events follow chronologically in reverse order. Tied to a stake, Jeanne, at whose feet the fire of the Inquisition has already been laid, hears the cries of the excited crowd who had gathered to watch the burning of the “witch,” mentally reproduces the meeting of the church court that sentenced her to execution, remembers the coronation in Reims, the rejoicing of the people on the occasion of the victory over the British and even very distant pictures of her childhood in the village. After each new episode of memories, a terrible reality returns: Jeanne, tied to a stake and awaiting execution.

This multifaceted work, rich in contrasts, includes both symphonic episodes and bright genre paintings, I have spoken dialogues, and choruses. The musical material is extremely diverse: here there is music of a high symphonic style (prologue), and stylized dance (in the allegorical scene of playing cards), and diverse developments of folk song melodies (“Trimaso”, “The Bells of Laon”), and Gregorian chant. Characteristic sound symbols often appear and repeat (the howling of a dog, the singing of a nightingale, the ringing of bells, imitation of the braying of a donkey and the bleating of rams). The oratorio contradictorily combines the tragic and the farcical, the historical and the modern. Honegger was particularly concerned with the accessibility and immediacy of the impact of Joan at the Stake. It was intended to be performed in France in 1938 and lived up to its purpose. After the premiere on May 12, 1938 in Basel, the oratorio was performed in dozens of French southern cities, and after the Liberation it was staged at the Paris Grand Opera.

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) became France's most important opera composer in the post-war years. Previously, his interest in musical theater was moderate. In 1947, his burlesque opera “The Breasts of Tiresias” (based on the play by G. Apollinaire) was staged at the Paris Opéra-Comique. Poulenc's music here is full of sincere joy, but this is not the joy of an elegant and light comedy, it is rather grotesque in the spirit of Rabelais. The opera was sung by Denise Duval, who has since become the best performer of the female roles in all three of Poulenc's operas. Her wonderful voice and rare artistic individuality were a kind of measure and model for the composer when he worked on the one-act monologue opera “The Human Voice” and on “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”

“The Human Voice,” based on the text of a dramatic scene by Jean Cocteau, was staged by the Comic Opera in 1959. In this one-act opera, a woman, abandoned by her lover, talks about him on the phone in last time. He is due to get married tomorrow. The conversation is often interrupted. The woman’s excitement and despair grows: she either pretends to be cheerful, or cries and admits that she has already tried to commit suicide. The scene lasts 45 minutes. The composer, as a true master of vocal writing, managed to overcome the danger of the monotony of a long and monologue. The vocal part in the melodic recitative comes from Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, but has something in common with Puccini in the arias.

By order of the Milanese La Scala theater, Poulenc composed in 1953-1956. great opera "Dialogues of the Carmelites". It was staged for the first time on January 26, 1957. After the Italian premiere, it became clear that not a single modern opera since Puccini had such an unconditional success at La Scala, where many new operas were staged in the post-war years (“The Career of a Spendthrift” by Stravinsky, “ Wozzeck" by A. Berg, "The Consul" by Menotti, "David" by Milhaud), which did not receive such an emotional response as Poulenc's opera.

“Dialogues of the Carmelites” is a psychological drama. Its theme is the internal mental struggle, the personal choice of a person placed in a critical situation: a theme well known from modern drama, relevant and natural in our time. A special problem here is the choice of specific historical material - an episode from the time of the French Revolution of 1789 (the execution of sixteen Carmelite nuns of the Compiegne Monastery, guillotined by the verdict of the revolutionary tribunal). J. Bernanos’s play “Innate Fear” was written on this plot, which Poulenc used and reworked. This is not an epic work Great Revolution, but a lyrical and psychological drama on a religious and ethical theme. There is neither denial nor affirmation of revolutionary ideas, there is no evaluation historical event. A narrow situation is taken, the consequences of social upheavals are shown for a small group of people who, due to circumstances beyond their control, were forced by frequent life choices and faced with the need to make a fatal decision. For modern, especially French, dramaturgy, such a scheme of dramatic conflict, as already said, is typical. But “Dialogues of the Carmelites” also has its own original feature: if in “Antigone” and “The Lark” Anouilh’s “weak” heroines contrast their “defenseless weakness” and their spiritual strength with violence, tyranny, then the central figure of Poulenc’s opera, weak creature Blanche, commits moral feat only “within himself,” he conquers only his inner weakness - his “innate fear.” She goes to death without fear, performs a sacrificial feat from human feeling solidarity, loyalty to friendship, at the behest of conscience, and not out of automatic obedience to the religious idea of ​​martyrdom. Blanche and her friend, the nun Constance, resist the church idea of ​​sacrifice, imbued with inhuman fanaticism, internally from beginning to end. The heart of Blanche, a weak and fearful person of life's struggle, sincerely responds only to human suffering, and not to the abstract idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "great sacrifice."

Blanche enters a monastery out of fear of life, its anxieties and cruelty. Her spiritual support is faith. But monastic life from the first moment begins to destroy this support; Blanche sees the terrible dying rebellion of the abbess of the monastery against sanctimonious humility and hears her prophecy about the death of the church. Blanche feels the agony of the church, the end of faith, which is already powerless to support and strengthen the troubled soul of a person. However, the nuns took a vow of martyrdom and decided to die “for the cause of faith,” entering into an unfair duel with the revolutionary authorities. The Carmelites are imprisoned and sentenced to death for inciting “in the name of God.” Together with them, Blanche rises to the scaffold, free from adherence to church dogma, but faithful to the law of friendship: she hopes that her self-sacrifice will console at least one person in her dying moment - her friend Constance. The human appearance of Blanche, who accepted death only so as not to “despise herself,” aggravates the painful impression of hopelessness in the immensely gloomy and mournful drama of Bernanos and Poulenc’s opera. Both artists show the human tragedy associated with the fall of the power and authority of faith, and illuminate, albeit indirectly, the moment acute crisis in the history of the Catholic Church, which in itself is very relevant for the modern West, and in particular France. In this work, the greatest sympathy is evoked not by religious fanatics, not by the servants of the faith, but by its “apostates,” hesitant, erring.

Poulenc's opera has a meaningful dedication: "Monteverdi, Mussorgsky and Verdi." In the musical interpretation of speech, Poulenc considers himself a follower not only of Debussy, but also of Mussorgsky. Poulenc associates the thoughtful and strict dramaturgy of his opera with the tradition of Verdi’s “grand” opera. And the entire work as a whole, as Poulenc probably believed, is intended to continue the great operatic tradition begun by the work of Monteverdi, who for the first time gave opera true tragedy and psychologically precise motivations human actions and clear character outlines.

Among the current French opera composers, the figure of the Romanian Marcel Mikhailovich (b. 1898), who has lived in Paris since 1919, is noteworthy. This composer’s Peru produced two operas that were especially characteristic in the choice of material for the post-war years: “The Return” (1954) - dedicated to A. Honegger radio play based on Maupassant’s famous short story “At the Port” (libretto by K. Ruppel), tragic story“returned” and forgotten, with relevant modern overtones and social-critical motives; and the second is Krapp, or the Last Tape (1960), a one-act opera based on the play by Samuel Beckett.

In 1950, Henri Barrault (b. 1900) completed a heroic tragedy in the operatic genre - “Numancia” based on Cervantes (based on a plot from an ancient story about the struggle of Spain against the power of Rome). In 1951, Emanuel Bondeville (b. 1898) performed the lyrical musical drama “Madame Bovary” (after Flaubert), and in 1954 the opera “The Caprices of Marianne” (after Musset) was staged by Henri Cogé (b. 1901).

It is interesting to note that the popular composer of modern chanson and film music in France, Joseph Cosmas (b. 1905), also wrote a large opera-oratorio “The Weavers” based on a text by J. Gaucheron, which was performed for the first time in 1959 in the German Democratic Republic and only in 1964. staged by the Lyon Theater. The opera-oratorio is dedicated to the history of the Lyon weavers' uprising in 1831. The authors, however, did not seek to create a historical opera, but emphasized the political relevance of the material for modern times. The reader leading the performance speaks on behalf of modernity. The history of the uprising itself is a memoir. main idea works - the need for a revolutionary reorganization of the world by the forces of the working class.

Large choral scenes and vivid song episodes form the basis of this work. Cosma easily connects chanson and choirs with recitative cues from the soloists. The reader's speech part comments on the action. The work provides opportunities for both concert and stage performance.

), French opera genre of the 2nd half of the 17th - 18th centuries. Reflected the classicist trend in French art (a kind of analogue to the tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine). It was distinguished by its monumentality (a 5-act composition with an overture), heroism and pathos. The creators of the Lyrical Tragedy are J.B. Lully, F. Cinema. The development of the genre was completed by J.F. Ramo.

Modern encyclopedia. 2000 .

See what "LYRICAL TRAGEDY" is in other dictionaries:

    Lyrical tragedy- (French tragedie lirique musical tragedy), French opera genre of the 2nd half of the 17th and 18th centuries. Reflected the classicist trend in French art (a kind of analogue to the tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine). It was distinguished by its monumentality... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

    The original genre designation was French. heroically tragic operas (tragédie lyrique, also tragédie en musique - tragedy set to music, musical tragedy). The term L. t. refers primarily. to production J. B. Lully (creator of L. t. in the 17th century), J... Music Encyclopedia

    - (French tragédie lyrique musical tragedy), second French opera genre half XVII XVIII centuries Reflected the classicist trend in French art (a kind of analogue to the tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine). It was distinguished by its monumentality (5... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

    tragedy- and, f. TRAGEDY, TRAGEDY and, w. tragedie, German Tragödielat. tragoedia gr. tragoidia. 1. A dramatic genre, the works of which are distinguished by the severity and irreconcilability of a conflict of a personal or social nature and usually end... ...

    A large form of drama, a dramatic genre opposed to comedy (see), specifically resolving the dramatic struggle with the inevitable and necessary death of the hero and distinguished by the special nature of the dramatic conflict. T. is based not... Literary encyclopedia

    Tragedy- TRAGEDY. A tragedy is a dramatic work in which the main character (and sometimes other characters in side conflicts), distinguished by the maximum strength of will, mind and feeling for a person, violates a certain universally binding (with... ... Dictionary of literary terms

    tragedy Historical Dictionary Gallicisms of the Russian language

    travails- TRAGEDY and, g. TRAGEDY, TRAGEDY and, w. tragedie, German Tragödielat. tragoedia gr. tragoidia. 1. A dramatic genre, the works of which are distinguished by the severity and irreconcilability of a conflict of a personal or social nature and end... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

    Opera- a term used in Europe. music traditions for designating stage performances. music representations (used in Italy since 1639, since the 1770s in France and England, since the beginning of the 18th century in Germany and Russia). The approval of the term O. was preceded by other designations... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

    Armide, or Armide and Renaud Armide ou Armide et Renaud First edition of the opera 1686 Composer Jean Baptiste Lully ... Wikipedia

Books

  • Othello. Lyrical drama in 4 acts. Othello (Italian: Otello) is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi in 4 acts, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. This opera is the result of the author’s long and deep reflections...
  • Othello. Lyrical drama in 4 acts. Libretto by Arrigo Boito, Giuseppe Verdi. Othello (Italian: Otello) is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi in 4 acts, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. This opera is the result of the author’s long and deep reflections...

GOU Secondary School No. 1399 Hobbydogs for the mini-encyclopedia "Creators of 18th-century culture in the stories of participants in the 2009 MHC Olympiad"

Jean Baptiste Lully

Jean Baptiste Lully - an outstanding musician, composer, conductor, violinist, harpsichordist - went through a life and creative path that was extremely unique and in many ways characteristic of his time. At that time, unlimited royal power was still strong, but the already begun economic and cultural ascent of the bourgeoisie led to the fact that not only the “rulers of thought” of literature and art, but also influential figures of the bureaucratic apparatus began to emerge from the third estate.

Jean Baptiste was born in Florence on November 28, 1632. Originally from Florentine peasants, the son of an Italian miller, Lully was taken to France as a child, which became his second home. Having first been in the service of one of the noble ladies of the capital, the boy attracted attention with his brilliant musical abilities. Having learned to play the violin and achieved amazing success, he joined the court orchestra. Lully rose to prominence at court, first as an excellent violinist, then as a conductor, choreographer, and finally as a composer of ballet and later opera music. In the 1650s he headed everything musical institutions court service as "musical superintendent" and "maestro of the royal family." In addition, he was the secretary, confidant and adviser of Louis XIV, who granted him nobility and assisted in acquiring a huge fortune. Possessing an extraordinary mind, strong will, organizational talent and ambition, Lully, on the one hand, was dependent on royal power, but on the other hand, he himself had a great influence on the musical life of not only Versailles, Paris, but throughout France. Since childhood, Lully played the guitar and violin and began to play in the ducal orchestra, and in 1652 he joined the remarkable court orchestra “The King’s Twenty-Four Violins.”

As a performer, Lully became the founder of the French violin and conducting school. His performance received rave reviews from several prominent contemporaries. His performance was distinguished by ease, grace and at the same time an extremely clear, energetic rhythm, which he invariably adhered to when interpreting works of the most varied emotional structure and texture. But the greatest impact on further development The French school of performance was supported by Lully as a conductor, and especially as an opera conductor. Here he knew no equal.

Actually, Lully's operatic work unfolded in the last fifteen years of his life - in the 70s and 80s. During this time he created fifteen operas. Among them, Theseus (1675), Atys (1677), Perseus (1682), Roland (1685) and especially Armida (1686) became widely famous. In the work of Lully Jean Baptiste, the form of the classical French overture developed.

Lully's last opera is Armide. Painting by Nicolas Poussin.

Lully's opera arose under the influence of the classicist theater of the 17th century, was closely connected with it, and largely adopted its style and dramaturgy. It was a great ethical art of a heroic nature, an art of great passions and tragic conflicts. The very titles of the operas indicate that, with the exception of the conventionally Egyptian “Isis,” they were written on plots from ancient mythology and partly only from the medieval knightly epic. In this sense, they are consonant with the tragedies of Corneille and Racine or the paintings of Poussin.

Lully's work is characterized by accessibility and clarity combined with a masterful use of the laws of the stage. His orchestra was famous for the grace of its playing: Lully avoided the exaggerated ornamentation fashionable at that time and preferred simplicity of expression and technical perfection. By royal privilege, he received exclusive artistic and material rights in the operatic genre and created 14 large tragic operas, all to the libretto of Lully's constant collaborator, the poet F. Kino. Starting with his first lyrical tragedy, Cadmus and Hermione (Cadmus et Hermione, 1673), and up to last composition of this genre, Armide and Renaud (Armide et Renaud, 1686), Lully demonstrated his experience in vividly meaning the feelings of his heroes, revealing in music the plot meaning of their words and actions. The librettist of most of Lully's operas was one of the prominent playwrights of the classicist movement - Philippe Kino. In Kino, love passion and the desire for personal happiness come into conflict with the dictates of duty and the latter take over. The plot is usually associated with war, the defense of the fatherland, the exploits of commanders (“Perseus”), with the hero’s combat against inexorable fate, with the conflict of evil spells and virtue (“Armida”), with the motives of retribution (“Theseus”), self-sacrifice (“Alceste” ). Characters belong to opposing camps and themselves experience tragic clashes of feelings and thoughts. The characters were depicted beautifully and effectively, but their images not only remained sketchy, but - especially in the lyrical scenes - acquired a sweetness. The heroism went somewhere, it was absorbed by courtliness. It is no coincidence that Voltaire, in his pamphlet “The Temple of Good Taste,” through Boileau, called Kino a ladies’ man!

Lully as a composer was strongly influenced by the classicist theater of its best time. He probably saw the weaknesses of his librettist and, moreover, sought to overcome them to some extent with his music, strict and stately. Lully's opera, or, as it was called, "lyrical tragedy", was a monumental, widely planned, but perfectly balanced composition of five acts with a prologue, a final apotheosis and the usual dramatic climax at the end of the third act. Lully wanted to return the disappearing greatness to the events and passions, actions and characters of Cinema. For this he used the means of pathetically elevated, melodious declamation. Melodically developing its intonation structure, he created his own declamatory recitative, which constituted the main musical content of his opera. “My recitative is made for conversations, I want it to be completely even!” - so said Lully. In this sense, the artistic and expressive relationship between music and poetic text In French opera, the situation was completely different from that of the Neapolitan masters. The composer sought to recreate the plastic movement of verse in music. One of the most perfect examples of this style is the fifth scene of the second act of the opera “Armada”.

The libretto of this famous lyrical tragedy was written by Kino based on the plot of one of the episodes of Torquato Tasso’s epic poem “Jerusalem Liberated”. The action takes place in the East during the era of the Crusades. Lully's opera did not consist of recitatives alone. There are also rounded ariatic numbers, melodically similar to those of that time, sensitive, flirtatious, or written in energetic marching or cutesy dance rhythms. The declamatory scenes-monologues ended with arias.

Lully was strong in ensembles, especially in character ensembles assigned to comic characters, which he was very successful with. Choirs also occupied a significant place in “lyrical tragedy” - pastoral, military, religious-ritual, fantastic-fairy-tale and others. Their role, most often in crowd scenes, was primarily decorative. Lully was a brilliant master of the opera orchestra for his time, who not only skillfully accompanied the singers, but also painted a variety of poetic and picturesque pictures. The author of "Armida" modified and differentiated timbre colors in relation to theatrical stage effects and positions. Particularly famous was Lully’s superbly designed opening “symphony” to the opera, which opened the action, and therefore was called the “French overture.”

Lully's ballet music has been preserved to this day in the theater and concert repertoire. And here his work was fundamental for French art. Lully's opera ballet is not always a divertissement; it was often assigned not only a decorative, but also a dramatic task, artistically and prudently consistent with the course stage action. Hence the dances are pastoral-idyllic (in Alceste), mourning (in Psyche), comic-characteristic (in Isis) and various others. French ballet music before Lully already had its own, at least centuries-old, tradition, but he introduced a new stream into it - “brisk and characteristic melodies,” sharp rhythms, lively tempos of movement. At that time, this was a whole reform of ballet music. In general, there were much more instrumental numbers in “lyrical tragedy” than in Italian opera. Usually they were higher in music and more in harmony with the action taking place on stage.

Shackled by the norms and conventions of court life, morals, and aesthetics, Lully still remained “a great commoner artist who considered himself equal to the most noble gentlemen.” This earned him hatred among the court nobility. He was no stranger to freethinking, although he wrote a lot of church music and reformed it in many ways. In addition to palace performances, he gave performances of his operas “in the city,” that is, for the third estate of the capital. He enthusiastically and persistently raised to high art talented people from the bottom, as he himself was. Recreating in music that system of feelings, the manner of speaking, even those types of people who were often encountered at court, Lully in the comic episodes of his tragedies (for example, in Acis and Galatea) unexpectedly turned his attention to the folk theater, its genres and intonations. And he succeeded, because from his pen came not only operas and church hymns, but also table and street songs. His melodies were sung in the streets and “strummed” on instruments. Many of his tunes, however, originated from street songs. His music, partly borrowed from the people, returned to him. It is no coincidence that Lully’s younger contemporary, La Vieville, testifies that one love aria from the opera “Amadis” was sung by all the cooks in France. Lully's collaboration with the brilliant creator of French realistic comedy Moliere, who often included ballet numbers in his performances, is significant. In addition to purely ballet music, the comic performances of costumed characters were accompanied by singing and storytelling. “Monsieur de Poursonnac”, “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”, “The Imaginary Invalid” were written and staged on stage as comedy-ballets.

Monsieur de Poursonnac - comedy-ballet in three acts by Moliere and J.B. Lully

For them, Lully, an excellent actor himself, who performed on stage more than once, wrote dance and vocal music. On January 8, 1687, while conducting the Te Deum on the occasion of the king's recovery, Lully injured his leg with the tip of a cane, which was being used to beat time at that time. The wound developed into an abscess and turned into gangrene. On March 22, 1687, the composer died. So, the creator of “Perseus” and “Armide” not only with his music, noble and majestic, suppressed or removed the precise and gallant weaknesses of Cinema, raising lyrical tragedy to the level of Racine and Corneille, and made comic ballet consonant with Moliere - he was sometimes broader and above the pure classicism of his era.

Lully's influence on the further development of French opera was very great. He not only became its founder, he created a national school and educated numerous students in the spirit of its traditions.